The role of aluminium and titanium in the point defects of gamma irradiated natural quartz

G. O. Sawakuchi, E. Okuno

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this work, the origin of the smoky colour acquired by quartz when exposed to extremely high doses (20 kGy) of ionising radiation is studied. Five paramagnetic centres were detected in the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrum of irradiated quartz: [AlO4]0, [TiO 4-/Li+]A0, [GeO4-/Na +]A0, [GeO4-/Li+] C0, and E'1. Optical absorption revealed a complex spectrum with superposition of bands. With the technique of thermoluminescence, at least three peaks at around 180, 260 and 320°C were detected. The peak at around 180°C has maximum emission at 470 nm and the peaks at around 260 and 320°C have maximum emissions at 450 nm. Through correlations between the obtained results with these techniques, it was possible to confirm previous results from the literature, i.e., that the smoky colour of quartz is strongly related to the centre [AlO4]0. Besides, it was verified an excellent correlation between the thermal decay of [AlO4]0 and [TiO4-/Li+] A0, suggesting that at a temperature around 200°C the Li leaves the Ti centre and recombines with the aluminium centre destroying the smoky colour of irradiated quartz. On the other hand and differently from the literature this process does not correlate to any of the thermoluminescence peaks.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)588-591
Number of pages4
JournalPhysica Status Solidi C: Conferences
Volume2
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2005
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The role of aluminium and titanium in the point defects of gamma irradiated natural quartz'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this